Training 3/10 - 3/16 ... and race recap & rambling

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. -- Albert Einstein

Let's get the boring stuff out of the way first - last week's training was a good taper into Saturday's race.


Sunday 3/10 - 85 minute cycle (outside, finally)
Monday 3/11 - 5.79 mile trail run
Tuesday 3/12 - 28 minute swim, 45 minute cycle
Wednesday 3/13 - 3 mile run, masters swim
Thursday 3/14 - 2 mile run, 30 minute cycle
Friday 3/15 - REST
Saturday 3/16 - Race Day 13.45 mile trail run

The race was awesome - I had so much fun.  And, importantly, my knees were happy and my mind was strong.  I understand now why people love trail racing - it's challenging without being stupid hard (at least not this race - I realize there are stupid hard trail races).  What I mean is that the challenges are there naturally - no race course designed to go up stairs or through a one-person wide portal.  The race had all sorts of terrain - paved trail, gravel fire roads, dirt pack, pine needle - and plenty of elevation changes.  It rained for the first 2 miles or so, but after that the sun came out and it ended up being a really nice day for a race.  And the nature was awesome.  I had forgotten how much I love the outdoors - not the outdoors of suburbia, but trees, wildlife, ponds, etc.

Here are a few pictures of my mud-spattered legs/shoes.  (Yeah, wearing capri tights with calf sleeves is uber-sexy...I know that.  You should see when I wear the calf sleeves with shorts - then my awesomely pink KT-taped knees show too.  And I also know I tie my shoes weird.  Don't judge.)

I ate a couple of lara bars before the race and some power chews during the race.  I brought applesauce, but I was too lazy to unpack it from my camelbak while I was running.  I drank nuun and skipped the gatorade and water at the aid stations.  Trail runners are cool, because the aid stations also had pretzels and m&ms.  I stopped for pretzels at the aid station around mile 10, but otherwise stuck to my plan.  After the race, I had a banana, a gatorade, and a brat.  My calves didn't cramp up after the race - I'll take that as a good sign.

Here's my awesome race number and medal.  I've decided I need a little rack to hang all of my medals on.  Right now they're taking up one of those drawers.  :)

A couple of random thoughts from the race (probably more delusions than thoughts, at least a couple of them)...
1)  I'd like to do another marathon again sometime.  I know, I need to get through my half first and keep my knees healthy, but the force is strong in this one.  (I'd also love to do one of the trail ultras when I am old and my kids don't need to be driven all the time.)
2)  There is no good reason for Justin Bieber songs to pollute my brain, and yet they do.  For a good portion of yesterday's race I was thinking the Bieber/Minaj song "Beauty and the Beat" - which made me laugh because one of my daughters thought it was "Beauty and the Beast" and the other wanted to know what Justin was going to do with a beet.  I ran the race music-less (because I'll need to for tris - might as well get back in that habit) and it went fine.  I was surprised, because I've become very attached to my music while I run.
3)  I run like a ninja.  No seriously - there are some people who sound like elephants when they run.  The ground shakes with their pounding and they aren't even large people.  I hardly make a footstep or at least that's what I'm going to tell myself.  Ninja runner.  That's me.
4)  Under Armor camouflage is wrong.  That is all.  Or maybe it was just the man wearing it - it was like neon orange (hunter orange) with brown camo accent panels.  No.  No.  No.  Not natural.

Onwards to tri training.  A little recovery this week and then I start the long journey.  And I'm excited.